Tag Archives: Date of Last Activity

The Date of Last Activity (DLA) listed on your credit report is important to understand. This date is updated when one of three things happens on any active account:

You make a payment,

You miss a payment, or

Your balance increases.

The Date of Last Activity used to include the “drop off” date, or the date the item will be removed from the report, but this is no longer the case. The “drop off date” is now a separate item and often not on the report at all.

Who sets the Date of Last Activity?

Creditors and debt collectors are responsible for reporting this information to the bureaus who then update the DLA accordingly.

Is a debt collector messing with your Date of Last Activity?

Some debt collectors sneakily make regular changes to consumers’ accounts, which triggers a balance increase to be sent to the bureaus and changes the DLA. This can hurt your credit score. Some unscrupulous creditors do this to intimidate people in hopes of pressuring them to pay.

What should you do about the Date of Last Activity?

When reviewing your credit report, pay special attention to the Date of Last Activity–especially on delinquent accounts. Make sure that the DLA reflects the actual date that a payment was made, missed, or the balance increased. If it is not, begin the basic dispute process to have the item changed or (better yet) deleted.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Reporting Act (FACTA) protects you from having erroneous or false derogatory information be posted on your credit report.

Does the DLA determine when an item will fall off your credit report?

No. The original delinquency date determines when the item will be deleted from your report. However, the DLA does influence your credit score. (This is crucial to know and a whole topic in itself. Don’t shoot down your score by updating an old derogatory DLA!)

Collection accounts are deleted seven years from the original delinquency dateof the original account. Collections accounts are always associated with the original account so they must be deleted at the same time.

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